Billy Freeman

Thomas Tucker missed almost all of last season after injuring his foot in the opener. His return could help improve a red zone offense that struggled in 2014. (Staff photo/Josie Lepe)

For my San Jose State training camp preview, which runs tomorrow with our coverage from today’s first day at camp, I run through the top questions the Spartans face over the next four weeks. Here they are: Continue Reading →

Joe Gray took plenty of hits in Saturday’s loss to Hawaii and a shoulder injury could likely keep him out Friday against Utah State. (Staff photo/Patrick Tehan)

The visual signs point to San Jose State junior quarterback Joe Gray being unavailable when the Spartans face Utah State on Friday.

Gray, the starter the past seven games, injured both his foot and his right shoulder in last week’s loss to Hawaii, with the shoulder injury being the major concern. He didn’t participate in practice for the second straight day when SJSU was on the field late Tuesday night. Continue Reading →

Andrew Vollert is expected to start again this week in place of the injured Billy Freeman. (Staff photo/Jim Gensheimer)

San Jose State coach Ron Caragher said at his Monday press conference that he hopes to have linebacker Christian Tago back at practice on Tuesday. If that’s the case, it’s likely he’d be available to play Saturday against Fresno State. He sat out the 38-31 loss to Colorado State with a shoulder injury. Continue Reading →

Billy Freeman isn’t expected to suit up for San Jose State in Saturday’s game against Colorado State. (AP photo/Patrick Semansky)

A few key notes today. Billy Freeman is out today with Andrew Vollert expected to start in his place. Freeman isn’t expected to suit up. The cited reason is the ankle injury that forced him to miss the UNLV game, but I believe he may also be dealing with some other leg injury.

The better news is Christian Tago and Tony Popovich are both expected to suit up. They’ll be game-time decisions to play, however I’d expect them to attempt to give it a go. Continue Reading →

Jeremiah Kolone (62), shown making the block to help lead to a Joe Gray quarterback sneak touchdown against UNLV, may be out for a while with a left knee injury. (Staff photo/Jim Gensheimer)

San Jose State’s starting left guard Jeremiah Kolone is out indefinitely after suffering a left knee injury Saturday. Caragher said Kolone was getting an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of the injury, but it appears to involve the knee ligaments and could end his season. Continue Reading →

First note: I would’ve got this up last night but I had to make the two-hour drive into Denver after the game so I needed to get on the road sooner rather than later.

San Jose State won a game it absolutely needed to win. If the Spartans fell to 2-4 with a loss to a bad Wyoming team, the season would quickly be teetering. The road to 7-5 — a record they must achieve to feel comfortable about their bowl status — would’ve required them to beat Colorado State or Utah State. I’m not saying they aren’t capable of beating those teams (especially CSU at home), but you don’t want your season relying on winning one of those.

The game turned into one that they both should have won easily, yet also could have lost easily. If Wyoming quarterback Colby Kirkegaard goes past his first read to see that his tight end Eric Nzeocha is wide open in the end zone on third down late in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys have a touchdown lead and Austin Lopez’s field goal doesn’t tie it. They would’ve needed a touchdown. Similarly, if Stuart Williams’ field goal is a football to the left, Wyoming’s celebrating a game-winning kick and a victory they didn’t deserve.

San Jose State understands it was fortunate to even have a chance to pull itself off the ropes.

“You just look up to the heavens and say, ‘Thank goodness we get overtime out of this’,” coach Ron Caragher said of his thoughts after the field goal bounced off the upright.

“You don’t get second chances,” linebacker Christian Tago added. “I’m glad we took advantage of that second chance we got.”

This was the third straight game San Jose State absolutely dominated the stat sheet, yet only one of those games actually turned into a blowout and one was a loss. Here’s yesterday’s tale of the tape.

San Jose State

Wyoming

First downs

31

11

Rushing yards

149

158

Yards per rush

3.6

5.3

Passing yards

322

119

Yards per attempt

7.2

4.2

Total offense

471

277

Yards per play

5.5

4.8

Time of possession

35:54

24:06

I hightlighted the three categories that were most evident of the dominance. Twenty more first downs, 194 more yards of offense and nearly 12 more minutes of possession, which is more impressive when you recall that Wyoming had a drive that lasted 9 minutes, 20 seconds.

Digest those third quarter numbers for a second. A power running team in Wyoming had only 17 yards on 15 carries through three quarters. All four of their first downs to that point had come on the nine-minute field goal drive in the second quarter. It’s probably fair to say the defense got a little winded, which can happen in that elevation especially because it was an unseassonably warm day. (Not uncomfortably warm of course, and I think the weather helped SJSU because a snow game would’ve been tough). But for whatever reason, Wyoming was finally able to move the ball against the Spartans’ vaunted defense.

Overall, even with that stretch in which it was gashed a little, there’s again a lot of good to take away from this defensive performance and their season numbers received another boost. The Spartans’ total defense average dropped down to 313.0 yards per game, which is now good for 12th in the nation. Slice it anyway you want, but the Spartans have the nation’s 12th-ranked defense and that’s mighty impressive.

They remain, by a wide margin, the nation’s top passing defense. The averaged went up slightly to 94.5 yards allowed per game and they also have sizable lead in pass efficiency defense. Maybe the most amazing stat is that teams have completed just 60 of 124 passes (48.4 percent). Teams are basically averaging a 10 of 21 performance through the air against the Spartans.

The biggest issue that’s preventing this team from fully taking advantage of its statistical domination is empty red zone possessions and ill-timed turnovers. The Limihai Hifo fumble was huge, and though some may fault him for fumbling after already gaining the first down, you have to credit the defensive play that was made. Hifo did a great job to push to get the first down. After that, he’s basically just stuck in that scrum and there’s nothing he can do to just fall to the ground. His teammates were there helping him push the pile and the Wyoming defender made a great play to get the ball loose.

The Joe Gray fumble is hopefully a learning experience. Caragher spoke about it after the game and spoke to Gray on the sidelines about the need to protect the ball when he is scrambling out. As we all know, this is still just Gray’s third career start. Those are things he should learn as he experiences it.

I can’t pin what exactly the red zone issues are. For one, the inability to line up and run the ball hurts. In the red zone, when there’s less space for receivers to work, passing can be tougher. If you’ve got a powerful running game, it can really help. Until the Spartans scored touchdowns on their final two red zone trips Saturday, they had gone a stretch with just one touchdown in their past 12 trips. With a guy like Tyler Winston who can win 1-on-1 battles in the red zone, you’d think SJSU could be better down there. Andrew Vollert also seems like a natural red zone target.

I did love the play call, design and execution that led to Gray’s go-ahead 18-yard touchdown run. With Tim Crawley motioning, it seemed pretty obvious he would get the ball. Then he was allowed to pass and Gray faked in the inside run. That’s already two areas of deception. Gray executed it all so perfectly and Crawley did a nice job of giving him a block on the edge to lead to an easy touchdown. We’ll see if SJSU starts opening that red zone playbook a little more as Gray gets more experienced.

You also see how small things can hurt a team. Billy Freeman nearly hauled in what would’ve been about a 40-yard pass, possibly for a touchdown, but at least to reach the one. If Freeman’s ankle is 100 percent, he maybe has a little more speed to get past the defender a little more and is able to catch it before the defender closes. Instead, two plays later Gray is strip sacked.

Of course, penalties continue to be an issue and Tyler Ervin was called for a big chop block to negate the touchdown pass to Hansell Wilson that would’ve been the game-winner in regulation. Watching the replay, it was the right call but oh so barely. Ervin went low to block the pass rusher, which is standard for a smaller back in pass protection. But you can’t go low if they are otherwise engaged and A.J. Samataua had a finger tip on the defender. So the fact that Samataua had him high, even if he was barely touching him, and Ervin got him low is a penalty. It’s a hard one to fault anybody on. Samataua is supposed to be blocking that guy and obviously got beat, but is still trying to keep a hand on him. Ervin knows his job is to provide support and did so. He probably could’ve stayed upright and got enough of a body on him to allow the pass to get off, but he did what you do and the right call was made.

The other issue of course has been the field goal kicking and Lopez missed another pair of kicks Saturday. He definitely redeemed himself with the game-tying 50-yarder, but don’t think that Lopez isn’t aware that he’s been an issue.

“It’s good for confidence,” Lopez said of the kick, “but I’ve got to get myself right. We’re midway through the season and I don’t what my percentage is, but it’s not good. I’ve got to get my focus right.”

He’s now 9 of 17 on the year but he might have figured out something that could help him. Before that last kick, when the team was huddling up, he took the field by himself and was just out there focusing and preparing himself for the kick. I asked him about that.

“I went back to the basics,” he said. “My freshman and sophomore year, I stayed to myself and this year. I’m trying to be more of a positive guy, more of a leader on the sidelines. But I just stayed to myself and focused and got my mind right.”

You could definitely understand Lopez, as a junior, wanting to be a leader on this team. He’s been such a key cog that he is a leader. But if staying to himself more can lead to more success, that’s the best possible way to lead. And now he gets to go back to the site of his coming out party as a freshman.

Tyler Winston would love to burn Wyoming for a big touchdown like he did in last year’s game in San Jose. (Staff photo/Karl Mondon)

Howdy from Wyoming, where San Jose State takes on Wyoming at 1 p.m. Pacific today. We’re a little bit limited on the links from me this week because I spent Wednesday and Thursday assisting with our Giants’ NLCS coverage. But here goes: Continue Reading →

Tight end Billy Freeman could be back for Saturday’s game at Wyoming.(Staff photo/Nhat V. Meyer)

San Jose State tight end Billy Freeman was back at practice Tuesday in a limited capacity and coach Ron Caragher said he plays to have the sophomore travel with the team to Wyoming for this week’s game.

“The plan is to bring him and see what he can handle as he progresses through the week,” Caragher said.